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AARON JUDGE WRAPS UP SOPHOMORE SEASON WITH MLB'S MOST POPULAR PLAYER JERSEY

09-28-2018

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Many of the Major League players with the most popular jerseys will take the field during the Postseason, which begins next week with the National League Wild Card Game presented by Hankook on ESPN Tuesday night, October 2nd.

New York Yankees All-Star outfielder Aaron Judge, who will lead the club into the Postseason on Wednesday, October 3rd in the American League Wild Card Game on TBS,will finish the 2018 regular season with the League's most popular player jersey for the second consecutive season. This is the second consecutive season that Judge finished with the most popular player jersey. Houston Astros All-Star second baseman José Altuve, whose Club starts its World Series title defense in the American League Division Series presented by T-Mobile on Friday, October 5th on TBS, will end the year with the second-most popular jersey amongst all players. Altuve leaped 11 spots in these rankings after finishing his 2017 American League MVP season with the 13th-most popular player jersey in the Majors.

Following Judge and Altuve in the top five on the list, released jointly today by MLB and the MLBPA, are rising stars and MVP candidates Javier Báez(#3) andMookie Betts (#5), each of whom rose seven spots from last year's rankings.

Part of this season's influx of new, young faces to the most popular jerseys list is 20-year-old Atlanta Braves phenom Ronald Acuña Jr., who began the season as MLB Pipeline's #2 prospect. Acuña Jr., who made his Major League debut on April 25th and ultimately played a key role in leading the Braves to their first National League East title in five years, becomes the youngest player to make the top 20 list since MLB and the MLBPA began releasing rankings after the 2010 season. All-Star slugger Giancarlo Stanton (#9), Red Sox outfielder Andrew Benintendi(#16) and 2017 World Series MVP George Springer (#17) join Acuña in making the top 20 for the first time in their careers while leading their Clubs into the Postseason. Rookie standout Shohei Ohtani (#8) also makes his first appearance on the list, bringing the average age of those five newcomers to 25.

The list is based on sales of Majestic jerseys from MLBShop.com, the official online shop of Major League Baseball, since Opening Day 2018. Major League Baseball and the Major League Baseball Players Association have released these rankings since 2010.